Crows Do It Again

New Caledonian crows prove capable of yet another cognitive feat—inferring the actions of hidden people.

By Jef Akst | September 18, 2012

A New Caledonian crows uses a pandanus tool. Image courtesy of Mick Sibley.

Already famous for their impressive problem solving skills, New Caledonian crows can now add logical inference to their repertoire. Alex Taylor of the University of Auckland in New Zealand placed a box with food near a hanging blue sheet, behind which someone could hide. A stick protruded from the sheet. Crows watched as people walked behind the sheet, then saw the stick move, and finally saw the people leave.

This seemed to make sense to them. But if they saw the stick and box move without observing someone enter and exit the hideaway, the crows became more cautious, exploring the blue sheet instead of probing the box for food. (See a video of this behavior atScienceNOW.) According to the researchers, the crows had likely inferred that if the stick was capable of moving, and no human left, maybe it could still move.

“We show that tool-making New Caledonian crows react differently to an observable event when it is caused by a hidden causal agent” than by an agent that could be seen or infered, the authors wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, where they published their results yesterday (September 17). “This difference shows that the crows can reason about a hidden causal agent”—a cognitive ability previously only attributed to humans.

"'This difference shows that the crows can reason about a hidden causal agent'â€”a cognitive ability previously only attributed to humans." What about other intelligent animals, such as great apes, dogs, or dolphins? I would be surprised if they lack this ability.

Humans always glorified themselves and thought to be more intelligemt than anything else- the basic example is a story that is claiming humans come from god and are made on his image. Big ego huh? We don't really know how intellogent or capable other species really are...

Perhaps its our own arrogance that put deemed us the sharpest tool in the shed. Based on the behavior of our politicians and corporations in relation to what we do to the planet, and the general public's stupidity in doing anything about it and instead being mesmerized by the antics of these fools, I'd say at best we rank dead last of the most intelligent species scale.

"According to the researchers, the crows had likely inferred that if the stick was capable of moving, and no human left, maybe it could still move."

No, the crows likely suspected that a predator of some sort could be hiding and attempting, deceptively, to get them within range of an attack. Animals and other of life's creatures have been suspicious of anything that signals the possble presence of a deceptive predator since behavioral strategies for life's survival had begun to evolve. Suspicion of such predatory dangers has become part of all our necessary biological functions.